


Scarlet Rose

by Dis_connect



Category: Maleficent (2014)
Genre: Dialogue Heavy, F/F, bare mentions of phillip, mentions of adultery
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-03-01
Updated: 2015-03-01
Packaged: 2018-03-15 20:21:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,022
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3460715
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dis_connect/pseuds/Dis_connect
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A reunion six months and (almost) two days in the making.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Scarlet Rose

 

 

 

 

Three AM was not the time to hear a phone ring.  
  
Aurora's eyelids fluttered open under great protest.  She didn't dream very often these busy days, let alone with such relish.  
  
Any other ring and she would have just muted it and burrowed down into the covers again to chase the lingering threads of her dream.  However she assigned ringtones with such thoughtful and serious precision, after a good deal of careful debate, that it was something of a joke among her small circle of friends.  Marissa had blaring klaxons because when she called it was _always_ a world-ending crisis.  Jeremy earned the default, blasé xylophone riff as punishment after a particularly embarrassing night out.  Even unknown callers had an assigned tone.  
  
Only one number was assigned the shrill, generic ring and when Aurora processed the sound beyond its initial annoyance, she threw the covers aside and scooped up her cell.  "Hello?" she rasped, heart hammering unaccountably.  A glance over her shoulder proved that Phillip was still asleep.  Aurora sighed in relief and padded out to the hallway.  "Hello?" she tried again, still no louder than a whisper.  
  
Another sigh echoed after a moment.  "Aurora."  
  
Oh.  
  
Aurora sunk against the wall, fingers pressed to trembling lips.  "Malle..." she choked out, throat tight with the rise of emotions.   
  
"Yeah."  
  
Through force of will, Aurora forced herself back onto her feet and down stairs, moving for the kitchen.  "It's...oh god, it's three in the morning.  Where are you?!" she hissed.  
  
"I'm safe, Beastie.  Don't fret."  
  
"Don't you pet name me, Maleficent!"  Aurora took a breath, brought her voice back down.  Christ, she couldn't wake Phillip.  "Where-"  
  
"I had a dream.  About you."  
  
Anger blunted by astonishment, Aurora was silent.  
  
Maleficent breathed softly into the receiver and chuckled at the quiet.  "A lot.  All of them.  You have no idea how good it is to hear your voice, Aurora..."  
  
This time her name was warbled and thick, swallowed in the hitch of breath that followed after.  Aurora pressed her forehead and free hand to the sliding glass door barring her from the outside.  Her eyes slid shut while her brow furrowed in pain accrued over the last six months.  "Malle.  Malle...where are you?  Please.  Come home to me."  
  
"I...I can't.  You know I can't."  
  
Pale fingers curled against the glass until they formed a white-knuckled fist.  "I'll come to you, then."  
  
Maleficent's voice was laced with amusement, if still somewhat brittle.  "I was hoping you might say that."  
  
Blue eyes snapped open only to narrow.  "What do you mean?"  
  
"I know you didn't have much choice in marrying that coat-tail-climbing ass-kisser-"  
  
" _Phillip_ is doing just fine, thank you for asking." Aurora huffed, trying to suppress a smile.  She turned from the glass as Maleficent continued unhindered.  
  
"-and you couldn't keep your father from sending his team of suited apes after me...."  
  
In fact, Aurora hadn't found out about the 'removal' of Maleficent until her father dropped by and gloated most proudly, ever-confident that his men would crush his daughter's mistress into a bloody paste.  She had smarts enough to do nothing beyond blanch, having realized that Maleficent's doom-and-gloom suspicions were true and her missing lover had gone MIA by necessity.    
  
"...but I finally managed to shake them and get myself set up."  There was a loud burst of a foreign language, muffled by a hand or coat.  "Sorry.  Like I said, I'm safe and secure with a job and a home.  I'm only missing you."  
  
"Only." Aurora clicked her tongue, setting the kettle up to boil.  
  
"Only every moment.  It killed me that I couldn't even turn this damn phone on until now.  I called you straightaway."  
  
Aurora leaned against the counter, listening carefully to the background noise coming through behind the plea in Maleficent's voice.  City sounds, traffic, more of a language that floated through her head, foreign but familiar.  She had heard it before.    
  
"Are you there?"  
  
She startled.  "Yes.  Yes, of course.  Goddamnit, Maleficent you tell me where you are right now."  
  
"Still the boss." she chuckled.  
  
Aurora cleared her throat, busying herself with prepping her mug to keep the frantic fluttering in her chest from escaping.  It didn't work in entirety.  Her voice stumbled mid-sentence.  "Malle, I've spent half a year waiting for this call, terrified that it would never come."  
  
Warning received, Maleficent sobered.  "Do you remember that foothold your father has been trying to gain for a few years now?"  
  
The plastic casing creaked ominously in Aurora's hand and she battled back the urge to scream and sob at yet another tangent.  Her father was incredibly busy, always aiming higher, aiming to acquire more and more.  'Foothold' was too nice a term for the way he could carve stairs out of people to get what he wanted.  
  
"Well, I had to cross an ocean and lower myself to the level of American dirt but I got it.  I won the contract.  It didn't hurt that the owner of the company is a woman."  There was a breathy, quiet laugh.  "Even offered me a job on the spot.  I couldn't say no."  
  
Aurora pulled the kettle before it could shriek and made her tea while putting together the pieces.  Maleficent wouldn't be so deliberately cruel if she didn't suspect that Stefan had his eyes and ears close to Aurora, the one person his prey might contact in all the world.  The sad thing was, even Aurora couldn't trust that he hadn't bugged her home or her phone.  So she thought and she listened and Maleficent was quiet, giving her the time.  When Aurora pulled the tea bag, the puzzle became whole enough and she sighed in relief.  
  
Japan.  Halfway around the world.  Her father had been arguing and wheedling for ages to get Tamoya Co to sign on with his own company.  Having a pharmaceutical company in his pocket would have been an enormous boon.  He set up an entire team of suits, none of which spoke a lick of Japanese, to work out a deal, when Maleficent was hauled in, strictly for her linguistic skills.  On top of failing to gain the contract in spite of speaking the language, it came out that Maleficent had been seeing the CEO's newly-married daughter, Aurora.  Stefan was beyond livid.  
  
Thing had careened downhill from there.  
  
"Jesus, Malle."  
  
The cityscape sounds dropped away, making Maleficent's soft laughter that much more potent.  "I knew you'd figure it out."  
  
Aurora pushed her tea around, not very interested in drinking it.  
  
There was a rather pregnant pause, interrupted only by a door clicking open and shut.    
  
"You're sure you're safe?" Aurora's whispered voice cracked.  
  
"Very.  No one can hurt me here.  I just need you, Beastie.  So much."  
  
Tears stung her eyes.  "I'm married, Malle."  
  
It was one of the main sources of contention in their affair.  Phillip was a 'good match' and was promoted to partner not long after a wedding Aurora had more or less floated through, as though it were another day just idly passing by.  He was a nice enough sort, with gentle hands and mindful of her.  They both worked for her father, though, and in the long hours apart, Aurora wasn't delirious with thoughts of seeing Phillip again.  Stefan pushed relentlessly for Aurora to stop working and provide grandchildren and that helped to kill off much of Aurora's desire for her new husband.  She had come up from being an intern, per her father's own contemptuous (she later realized) claim that she had to fight her way up the ladder like any other employee - no handouts.  She wasn't ready to lie back and be some complacent housewife.  
  
"Are you happy?"  
  
After Maleficent disappeared, work became little more than a burden and a reminder of what was missing.  Aurora's performance didn't exactly suffer, she was far too much her father's daughter for that, but her geniality and sense of mercy had taken large blows.  
  
Tea swirled down the sink drain.  Aurora rinsed the mug and set it aside to dry.  
  
"Beastie, don't cry."  
  
"I'm not!" she snapped, swiping at her cheeks.  
  
Maleficent breathed quietly at the other end, giving the sting a moment to pass.  "You...you should stay.  Divorce is messy and you know your father will have his greasy paws all over it.  I-I'm sorry-"  
  
"No!"  
  
Aurora ducked in the middle of her kitchen, startled by the volume of her own voice.  Her emotions boiled high in her heart and she worked to catch her breath, praying that she hadn't woken Phillip.  "No, you do not get to say those things to me like what we did was just a bit of **fun** , Maleficent!"  
  
"Then what do you want me to say?!" was barked back at Aurora.  Maleficent didn't have to restrain her voice, either.  "I love you!  I love you so much it about killed me!  I had to flee the goddamn country, everything I've ever known!"    
  
Aurora could almost see Maleficent pacing, raking her free hand through her hair until there was no hope for the untamed mess.  The familiar vision squeezed around her heart, stealing her breath with its potency.  
  
Maleficent continued, deflating as she spoke.  "I don't want you to hurt, though.  If this is too hard, too much...I just want you to be happy.  Alright?  We'll be friends.  I'll...I'll call on your birthday.  Send you cards and presents.  All that crap."  
  
Stained glass lies; pretty and brittle.  Aurora laughed softly.  "You're a terrible liar, idiot."  
  
The sound seemed to smooth over some of Maleficent's ire.  Her voice still growled with annoyance, though.  "I do love you."  
  
"Don't sulk."  She teased, sighing into the receiver as though it might travel the world to brush over Maleficent's skin.  "I love you."  
  
"I would be there if I could, Beastie.  I would steal you away an-"  
  
"I'll be on a plane tomorrow."  
  
Maleficent went quiet in surprise.  
  
"Did you hear me?"  
  
A flurry of movement sounded through the phone, including one striking curse after what sounded like Maleficent tripping over something.  A sheet of paper was ripped.  "What flight, what time?"  
  
"I don't know." Aurora confessed, heart racing.  The idea of abandoning her job, her home, her husband...she reminded herself to keep breathing.  It would be okay.  "I...I'm going to go to the airport and find the first flight I can.  Will that be okay?"  
  
Maleficent laughed, edged with a little delirious relief.  "For you, Beastie, I will camp right outside of Customs!  Don't forget your passport, we'll worry about getting you more than a visitor's pass when you get here."  
  
Her excitement bled into Aurora, made her voice tremble.  "Oh God, Malle."  
  
"I know."  
  
"I can't take my phone.  Just in case."  
  
"I'm going to destroy this one when we're done talking.  It'll be okay.  I promise.  I'll be waiting right there when you touch down.  Arms full of flowers and chocolates."  
  
"Malle..."  
  
"And little teddy bears.  I should probably hire the neighbor kid to come with me and bring his wagon."  
  
"Maleficent."  
  
Chuckling warmed Aurora right to her very soul.  "Fine, fine.  I will be there, though.  When you land."  
  
Less than forty-eight hours.  Aurora took in a slow breath and released it along with what was rapidly becoming a past-life.  "I will see you soon.  I love you."  
  
"Love you, too.  Fly safely, Beastie."  
  
Aurora bit her lip as she pressed the 'end call' button.  The idea of destroying her phone was frightening but there was only one number she wanted to call and at that end, the phone wouldn't exist in a few minutes.  She turned the device off, removed the SIM card, and brought both back upstairs.  After tucking the card away, Aurora slipped under the covers and hugged her pillow tightly.   
  
"Who was that?"  
  
She about came out of her skin at the sound of Phillip's heavily sleep-ladened voice.  "Oh...just...the London office.  No sense of time zones."  
  
He chuckled and, after a nervous minute, resumed his quiet snoring.  Aurora released her held breath and squeezed her pillow tighter.  
  
Less than forty-eight hours.

 

 

 

 

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> I heard something like the last minute of Lips of an Angel in passing on the radio the other day and...now there's this. :)


End file.
